When Paul & Sonja conceived the HorrorFest in 2004 (to debut in 2005), they wanted it to be a
Horror Festival Spectacular - hence the Horror Festacular description. But from the get-go it was referred to as the HorrorFest.
Plans were devised at the beginning to give each year a theme - the first one to be Zombies (screening movies like Night Of The Living Dead).
So, with a consumer digital camera, Paul took a picture of Sonja and (with very little time) did some basic Photoshop post
to turn her into a walking dead chick. That was for the poster, while the folded printed flyer was a tombstone and zombie hand
reaching from the grave (again created in Photoshop).

designed by Paul Blom

The 2nd HorrorFest / Festacular got a vampire theme, with Nosferatu receiving a live soundtrack performance by Paul & Sonja's Makabra Ensemble collaborative music project.
(This was recorded live and released on DVD)
As with the first year's poster, Paul took a pic of Sonja and did some post. The flyer was oblong with the print giving it a coffin shape.
It had a cross lid window shape with Sonja's face as if inside the coffin - on opening the flyer, it revealed Sonja inside.

designed by Paul Blom
2007 didn't have a defined theme, so a sexy demon / gargoyle-type creature was devised, with Sonja as inspiration again.
Original pic of Sonja shot by Francois Oberholster for a photo-shootof Paul & Sonja's band Terminatryx .

designed by Paul Blom

2007 also saw the Paul's creation of the HorrorFest skull-moon logo (on the left).
(This logo image was used for the 2nd Bloody Parchment short story collection, also in print form).

For the 10th anniversary
the skull-moon got a little facelift mainly in Paul's font design (on the right).

designed by Paul Blom
(photography by Graham Abbott)

By this time the organizers realized that a specific theme for each year will not necessarily be conducive, but that didn't matter.
2008 saw the release of the first album by Paul & Sonja's band Terminatryx. The album cover pictures were shot by Graham Abbot,
and one of the images were used and altered by Paul for that year's HorrorFest. Again, a sexy, but dark image (even with so much white!)

artwork by Vernon Swart
(from a photograph of Sonja taken by Dr-Benway)
moon logo & design by
Paul Blom

2009 saw a return to a theme, this time Werewolves (with movies like An American Werewolf In London and its new documentary).
A Skype interview with its director John Landis was planned, but connectivity issues unfortunately spoiled that plan.
This time for the cover Paul approached his friend (and former school art teacher) Vernon Swart, who went on from teaching to
becoming
a respected South African artist. Paul decided that turning Sonja into a werewolf for the poster would either look too mean
and have her unrecognizable, or result in it looking like a cute doggie(!) So, that issue got solved by leaving Sonja normal but
adding an extra character for the first time in the shape of incorporating a werewolf.
Using a picture taken by Dr-Benway for a Terminatryx photo shoot, Vernon redrew her and added the werewolf - this is hte first time a poster was physucally created as opposed to digitally.
As has become customary, Paul added his skull moon logo and all relevant info.
2009 also had Paul & Sonja produce the festival's video teaser (directed by Paul, starring Sonja, shot by Marnus Tredoux,
edited by Leon Visser and make-up by Clinton Smith & his Cosmesis team). It was shot and edited over a night and a morning
in order to get it to eTV's Showbiz Report the next day for broadcast(!) The clip was expanded into a Terminatryx music video for "Virus",
and an extended short film "Marked".

With the incorporation of The Exorcist, naturally the 2010 theme would be the devil! A sexy devil, of course.
Clinton and Daleen from Cosmesis jumped in again with their talents to transform Sonja into something otherworldly, yet enticing,
with full body make-up, a special pin-up wig, and horns.
They threw in a clapper board and Dr-Benway shot Sonja before getting
stuck into post, which also included the creation of a devil tail.
This design also became the cover for the first short story eBook collection of the HorrorFest's Bloody Parchment literature chapter.

(In addition to this image of festival organizers Sonja & Paul, another image of them got used for the cover of LMG Magazine's October issue,
featuring a piece on the HorrorFest and an article on Metal music by Paul)

designed by Paul Blom
post-production by Dr-Benway

2011 again had no specific theme, and Paul had always wanted to use a Grim Reaper image.
They rented a hooded cape & borrowed a friend's scythe. Paul shot Sonja at the Cosmesis premises
and incorporated
the skull from the event's moon logo into the one half of Sonja's face for added effect. He then passed it on to Dr-Benway
who added some grading and the cloudy night-sky background.

designed by Dr-Benway
concept by
Paul, Sonja & Dr-Benway
The theme for 2012 was Frankenstein, represented at the event in various forms, from the first two Boris Karloff movies,
to a modern reinterpretation and live soundtrack performance by The Makabra Ensemble for the
1910 silent short film based on Mary Shelley's creation.
Based on a Bride Of Frankenstein image, for the poster Dr-Benway took an image of Sonja styled as closely as possible,
and transformed it in post, including an angry mob & castle, for an old-school movie poster look.

designed by Paul Blom

For years Paul had wanted to recreate the classic Scarface poster for the HorrorFest, for no other reason than it looks graphically cool!
So, he shot an image of Sonja posing like Al Pacino, replacing the pistol with a butcher knife, and jumped into post, tracking down a similar font.

designed by Simone' Hendricks

For
the 10th anniversary poster the Halloween (sexy) Witch theme was chosen.
The most fantasy slanted poster thus far, was executed digitally by the talented Simone' Hendricks.
(Sonja's hair also got a grey-blonde make-over by Simone')

designed by Paul Blom

In 2015 Paul executed something he'd wanted for a while, a HorrorFest crest design.
Black is an obvious choice when it comes to Horror themes, but by making the background white for its first incarnation,
with the blood splat it stood out in a different way. The crest was also used as the festival poster for 2015.
The figure at the centre of it (which also incorporates the event's classic skull-moon designed by Paul),
is event co-ceator Sonja, who appears on all the posters (her image taken from a Terminatryx band picture, shot by Dr-Benway).

designed by Paul Blom

2016 marked the 12th SA HorrorFest - midnight... So, Paul took a picture of the church on Green Market Square
and got to work. The new crest design was included as logo, and Dr-Benway did some cloud adjustment and
added a different clock face set to 12 o'clock.